Clem Ferguson nurtured a dream to be a flight attendant.
It’s a dream she kept largely to herself growing up outside of Athens.
“I grew up in the country,” said Ferguson. “I thought it would be glamorous to travel as a flight attendant.”
Life, however, led her to Berry College in Rome, where she studied home economics.
She moved to Atlanta and worked at a company doing filing and mailing. She traveled by car to places like Ohio and Florida, but never ventured outside the United States.
Who says, though, that dreams can’t eventually come true?
At 96, Ferguson, who lives in the Nursing and Rehab Center at Christian City in Union City, earned her wings as an honorary Delta Air Lines flight attendant. She won't be hitting the skies, but she is still flying high.
A beaming Ferguson was pinned Tuesday during a special event at the center.
This all came about through a joint effort by PruittHealth, Christian City, Delta and Second Wind Dreams, which grants wishes for senior citizens.
“We believe that our elders still have hopes and dreams,” said P.K. Beville, founder of Second Wind Dreams. “We live in a culture in which everybody believes that children are our future, but, in fact, the elderly are our future. That’s where we’re all headed — where they are now. We need to focus on making their lives happy and joy-filled.”
At first, Ferguson said no when she was told about her wish being granted and that she would go to the in-flight training center. She was worried about her physical condition.
Ferguson, a widower, must use a wheelchair after a fall a few years ago.
It took Irene Ngonga, a nurse assistant, to persuade her to go.
“She is absolutely elated about her dream coming true and absolutely exhausted from the dream that seemingly never ends,” said Steven Sheets, administrator of the Nursing and Rehab Center.
Now that she has achieved one milestone, what is next on her wish list?
It’s pretty simple. Ferguson dreams of seeing a sister, Betty Culbertson, 83, who is in an assisted living facility in Birmingham, Ala. She said it’s been about a year since the two last saw each other.
“She used to come see me, but now she’s not able,” she said.
Sheets said when he asked Ferguson about her visiting her sister, the honorary flight attendant, thinking it was another hoopla-surrounded dream event, wagged her finger and said, “Steve, I am not going to Birmingham.”
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